Oh, my goodness me! If you haven’t noticed the bursts of purple around your neighbourhoods you must be getting about with your eyes closed. Open them up! The Tibouchinas are in flower and they are letting those that take notice know that this is their year. They are truly exceptional at the moment and I want one, please!

I don’t remember a time in Sydney since I have lived here (9 years… and counting) when they have been as vibrant and full of flower, even the straggly ones are contributing their fair share of purple to our landscape and I just love it.

The Tibouchina sp. (Melastomateae family) is native to south-east Brazil which demonstrates their ability to grow in a wide range of climatic environments in the Australian landscape. During the 60’s in Alstonville, northern New South Wales Tibouchina ‘Alstonville’ was selected by plants man Ken Dunstan as an ideal garden specimen, it was successfully marketed and is possibly still one of the most popular Tibouchinas available along with ‘Jules’ a compact variety.

You can be forgiven for mistaking Tibouchina as an Australian native given it’s history and familiar name. During my childhood growing up in Northern New South Wales I too thought it originated from the rolling hills and dense rainforests surrounding Alstonville, especially since the village once celebrated this lovely tree with the Tibouchina Festival. Sadly the festival is no longer run but hopefully it will make a resurgence now that the town is bypassed and streets can be shut off for a day. But just because there is no festival doesn’t mean you can’t have your own little piece of Tibouchina and celebrate its magical show of Autumn flowers with your very own. A little bit more about Tibouchina’s…

Now is the ideal time to get to your local garden centre to pick out a Tibouchina for your garden. They are in flower so you’ll know exactly what your getting and the vibrancy of the purple in the flowers.

Tibouchinas ‘Alstonville’ is a large shrub or small tree and grows to 5 meters – depending on how it is maintained and pruned. It is ideal as a specimen or feature tree, or as a street tree (thank you Alstonville village for the gorgeousness that is your tree lined streets and pops of purple emerging from back gardens). If only I had a ‘real’ garden!

Tibouchina ‘Jules’ is a dwarf variety that grows to 1m. Jules is ideal for small gardens, planted in a border or used in pots (yes please, I’ll have some of that!) There are other varieties of Tibouchina available so ask when you get to your garden center.

Tibouchina are suited to most areas of Australia, however, they do not like frosts or cold mountain areas. Tibouchina like warm, sunny positions, just make sure you protect them from hash winds.

Plant your Tibouchina in acidic well drained soil. If the soil is not acid enough the leaves of your Tibouchina will burn and eventually die. To increase the acidity of the soil where you want to plant your Tibouchina or to correct soil where a Tibouchina already exists add sulphure and compost to the soil. The levels will change over time so be sure to check back to make sure that an ideal pH level has been reached.

Don’t forget to prune your Tibouchina… Ideally you are striving for a compact canopy of foliage and flowers with a nice habit. To achieve this, prune your Tibouchina back once after flowering and tip prune once in spring when the growing season starts. If you maintain this routine you will have a tree or shrub with dense, bushy growth.

Watering, yep you guessed it, one must participate in their garden if one would like their garden to flourish. Water your Tibouchina well during the growing season to promote healthy new growth and a spectacular show of Autumn flowers.

So, have you decided… Will it be a tree or a shrub for your garden? Either way I hope you enjoy the gorgeous spectacle that is the Tibouchina in flower.

This is my year of living, well… joyfully! And what better way to do that than to get out and about in this gorgeous habour side city and explore it. I found this quote (and fabulous picture) on Pinterest recently and it got me thinking about more than just going somewhere new each year, what about each month!

(source: pinterest.com)

The picture implies packing your suitcase and ‘getting away’ and while I’ll certainly stick my hand up for a boarding pass to (almost) anywhere I realise that there is still so many wonderful places, sites and pop-ups to visit right here in Sydney. So, each month I shall go somewhere within this beautiful city that I have never been to before – maybe I’ll even go to two places, there are no rules!!!

So far there have been two firsts, I know, I’m all over this ‘exploring’ thing. One rainy Sunday after a rather large cooked breakfast Dave (husband and aka Mr Serendipity) and I were scratching our heads about what to do for the remainder of the day. My winning suggestion of a casual wander around the inner city suburb of Darlinghurst was a winner. It was perfect, we wandered, peered through fences, admired gorgeous buildings and manicured gardens and found ourselves on a guided tour of Elizabeth Bay House. If you like the old world charm of Sydney then pay a visit to Elizabeth Bay House and ask for a guided tour – the guides are excellent!

It’s like a little bit of NYC in inner city Sydney. Just gorgeous!

The beauty that is the internal dome of Elizabeth Bay House.

The second adventure was a solo visit to Paddington Reservoir. I couldn’t believe I had never been there before and I suggest, if you are in the area you make some time to visit too.

Paddington Reservoir is located on Oxford St Paddington (NSW). It was built in two stages, the western chamber was completed in 1866 and the eastern chamber in 1877. It was used as a holding reservoir for water from Botany Swamps and the Nepean between 1859 and 1889. Yep 1889! That’s it, life as it was intended for the reservoir was cut short due to its inadequate elevation.

During the 1930’s Paddington would have been a pretty tough place to live.There was overcrowding and I imagine it would have been pretty unsanitary in places. At the time there was concern about residents health, especially the health of the children. The council, possibly under the influence of the Parks and Gardens movement provided access to the roof of the reservoir and in so doing, provided a space for the community to come together in the outdoors. This cemented its ‘forever use’ as an outdoor space.

In 1990 part of the roof collapsed rendering the entire site unsafe and forced its closure. However, it was soon to be conserved, redeveloped and reinvented and in 2009 was officially opened as the gardens it is today. The front of the garden is very unassuming and if you didn’t know it was there you might walk right by. The garden is muli-layered and around every corner and at the end of every flight of stairs or ramp there is something to see. The iron work is exceptional and the preservation of the grey ironbark pillars and concrete wall and arches reminds us of the people that built this city in which so many live and love – even if it was at the wrong elevation, oops!

I delighted in seeing so many people using the space. If you haven’t been I suggest you pack yourself some snacks, a book, maybe your favorite picnic blanket too, although if you’re lucky you might nab yourself one of the folding canvas chairs they have available to use – cute, yes?

I hope that you have the chance to visit Paddington Reservoir Garden some day too!

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